About 6:06 p.m., on January 17, 1979, the fifth and sixth cars of the seven-car westbound train No. 117 of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) caught fire while moving through the tunnel under the San Francisco Bay between Oakland and San Francisco, California. Forty passengers and two BART employees were evacuated from the burning train through emergency doors into a gallery walkway located between the two single track tunnels and then into a waiting train in the adjacent tunnel. One fireman died when the gallery suddenly filled with heavy black toxic smoke. Twenty-four firemen, seventeen passengers, three emergency personnel, and twelve BART employees were treated for smoke inhalation. Property damage was estimated to be $2,450,000.